Business barriers to the e-sourcing and re-use of mechanical components

Manufacturing enterprises around the world have archives of tens of thousands of 3D CAD models that define the components they manufacture. Technologies are emerging from a number of research projects that suggest it will be feasible in the near future to conduct global 'shape' searches on these collections. In principle such "3D-search" engines could revolutionise the sourcing of mechanical components and enable a dynamic market for reselling existing production tooling. This paper presents an investigation of the commercial and business aspects of this emerging technology (i.e. 3D e-Sourcing). State-of-the-art part-sourcing is outlined and estimates of the potential benefits of reuse are discussed. The paper then outlines ownership issues of CAD/CAM data and tooling and identify barriers, both technical and business, to forms of 3D e-Sourcing which would enable secondary use. The paper identifies the ability to prohibit the physical production of publicly circulated 3D models as key to the viability of this trading system. Consequently the paper concludes with details of a proposed "3D Model Public Licence" which is specifically designed to protect the IP of manufactures while allowing 3D search engines to index components.